Analysis Responses

Smart textiles and wearables for assistive technology

Category: User Experience

Discreet technology integration like heating textiles, furnitures helping aged person to stand up, fall alert or prevention, clothing decrease hurt risk from falling down

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Smart textiles and wearables for keeping independent longer the ageing population

Category: User Experience

Collecting health data for early diagnostic, treatment from distance, send help for emergency

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SMILE: Providing digitalised prevention and prediction support for ageing people in smart living environments

Category: Projects

International project that will create Smart Inclusive Living Environments (SLE) enabling aging in place. They will support independent and active aging living through a participatory SLE ecosystem model; the 'Digital Care Facilitator', an AI-based system; a conversational agent as an everyday intermediary enhancing social participation; personal mHealth apps, and eHealth monitors and devices. The project will demonstrate that SMILE works for a very heterogeneous group: older people with severe dementia, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and care transitions during post-surgery recovery.

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State of the Art of Audio- and Video-Based Solutions for AAL

Category: User Experience

It is a matter of fact that Europe is facing more and more crucial challenges regarding health and social care due to the demographic change and the current economic context. The recent COVID-19 pandemic has stressed this situation even further, thus highlighting the need for taking action. Active and Assisted Living (AAL) technologies come as a viable approach to help facing these challenges, thanks to the high potential they have in enabling remote care and support. Broadly speaking, AAL can be referred to as the use of innovative and advanced Information and Communication Technologies to create supportive, inclusive and empowering applications and environments that enable older, impaired or frail people to live independently and stay active longer in society. AAL capitalizes on the growing pervasiveness and effectiveness of sensing and computing facilities to supply the persons in need with smart assistance, by responding to their necessities of autonomy, independence, comfort, security and safety. The application scenarios addressed by AAL are complex, due to the inherent heterogeneity of the end-user population, their living arrangements, and their physical conditions or impairment. Despite aiming at diverse goals, AAL systems should share some common characteristics. They are designed to provide support in daily life in an invisible, unobtrusive and user-friendly manner. Moreover, they are conceived to be intelligent, to be able to learn and adapt to the requirements and requests of the assisted people, and to synchronise with their specific needs. Nevertheless, to ensure the uptake of AAL in society, potential users must be willing to use AAL applications and to integrate them in their daily environments and lives. In this respect, video- and audio-based AAL applications have several advantages, in terms of unobtrusiveness and information richness. Indeed, cameras and microphones are far less obtrusive with respect to the hindrance other wearable sensors may cause to one's activities. In addition, a single camera placed in a room can record most of the activities performed in the room, thus replacing many other non-visual sensors. Currently, video-based applications are effective in recognising and monitoring the activities, the movements, and the overall conditions of the assisted individuals as well as to assess their vital parameters (e.g., heart rate, respiratory rate). Similarly, audio sensors have the potential to become one of the most important modalities for interaction with AAL systems, as ?iew full abstract

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Ten questions concerning age-friendly cities and communities and the built environment

Category: User Experience

Journal paper: Abstract: The development of ?ge-friendly cities' has become a major area of work in the field of ageing and the built environment. This movement is driven by the observation that cities are home to an ever-increasing ageing population. Over the past decade, a multitude of age-friendly initiatives have been developed with the aim of making physical and social environments more favourable for older people's well-being, health and ability to live in the community. This article explores ten key questions associated with the age-friendly cities and communities' movement, with a particular focus on the built environment. It provides an overview of the history of the age-friendly cities' movement and the underlying models, the aspects of the built environment that are relevant for age-friendly cities, the ways age-friendliness can be evaluated, and the interactions between age-friendly cities initiatives and other strategic agendas such as smart cities. The paper concludes by discussing future perspectives and possible directions for further development of the age-friendly movement.

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What makes a community age-friendly: A review of international literature

Category: User Experience

The paper reviews the international literature on age-friendly communities and identifies key attributes associated with creating a sustainable environment for seniors. It critically evaluates emerging policy trends and models and suggests directions for future research attention.

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